Trump's N.Y. trial puts ex-president against his own statements on felons voting
If Donald Trump's hush money jury renders a guilty verdict — his words against letting convicted felons vote could sting.
The criminal trial against former President Donald Trump is winding down and a jury will deliberate and render a verdict.
He's pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 sum to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence from an alleged 2006 romance in an effort to manipulate the outcome of the 2016 election.
ALSO READ: What Trump's weird WWE Hall of Fame speech tells us about his presidential debate strategy
A conviction could see a maximum sentence of four years in prison on each of the 34 counts.
More likely, Trump would be ordered to pay a fine and serve some kind of supervision with the city’s Probation Department.
But should the jury possibly render Trump guilty, he may quickly regret some of his own words.
For years, Trump has made no bones about his disdain for felonious prisoners being able to participate in the election process.
The Independent chronicled key instances when 45th president bristled at the notion of a convicted felon being able to participate in the election process like other American citizens.
In 2016, Trump was running against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
He denigrated then-Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe for a decision to restore some voting rights to convicted felons — suggesting it was a ploy to benefit the Democratic ticket.
“Hillary Clinton is banking on her friend Terry McAuliffe on getting thousands of violent felons to the voting booths in an effort to cancel out the votes of both law enforcement and crime victims,” he said at the time. “They are letting people vote in your Virginia election that should not be allowed to vote. Sad. So Sad.”
Three years later, according to the outlet, when Trump was running as the incumbent for a second term against then candidate Joe Biden, he called out Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for encouraging any American citizen, including lifer felons, to be able to have a right to vote. (Biden didn't go that far; he wanted the privilege restored only to felons who served out their sentences).
At the National Rifle Association’s annual conference that year, Trump attacked Sanders' voting clemency.
“Let the Boston bomber vote,” Trump said, according to a transcript from the speech. “I don’t think so. Let terrorists who are in prison vote, I don’t think so.’”
In September 2020, Trump knocked former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for what he dubbed a “serious crime” for giving former prisoners a chance to vote.
“Wow, nobody realized how far Mini Mike Bloomberg went in bribing ex-prisoners to go out and vote for Sleepy Joe,” Trump posted on Twitter/X.